Altergeist
"Altergeist" is an archetype of female Spellcaster monsters with various Attributes (primarily DARK) used by Emma Bessho (Ghost Gal) in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. It debuted in Circuit Break. Design Appearance Each member of this archetype is based on a mythological, ghostly female creature, but with cybernetic features unlike traditional Spellcaster monsters. All of the monsters shown so far has a feminine appearance. The "Altergeist" monsters also sport a head piece that project laterally from their heads and lacks facial features except a smiling mouth. Etymology The name "Altergeist" is a play on the word poltergeist, formed from the words alter and geist. All members of the archetype are themed after a mythological character followed by a computing terminology. Members Support Playing style The Main Deck monsters have slight disruptive capabilities, negating an opposing card's effects, stopping an attack, returning an opposing card to the hand or sending them to the Graveyard. Also, they have swarming capabilities that can be used to set up the Link Summon of their ace monsters, namely "Altergeist Primebanshee" and "Hextia", whose effects further reaffirms their swarming and disruptive abilities. Some of them also have an effect that triggers when they are used as Link Materials, searching for resources or retrieving cards from the Graveyard. The deck is supported by Trap Cards that either revive monsters, protect them from attacks or even negate and destroy opposing cards. The key to many of their successful plays is the power of "Altergeist Multifaker" who can Special Summon itself from the hand and any "Altergeist" from the Deck when a Trap Card is activated. As a result, they tend to be a slower strategy than most modern Decks, relying heavily on floodgates to slow down an opponent's strategy to a crawl. "Altergeists" aim to reduce games down to slow wars of attrition that they can win through field control and their many floating effects. A typical first turn would involve using "Altergeist Marionetter" to Set an "Altergeist" Trap from Deck (most likely "Altergeist Protocol"), then using "Personal Spoofing" to search "Multifaker", which then Summons itself and "Altergeist Silquitous" to bounce any opposing cards that come into play. By recycling "Multifaker" over and over (as "Spoofing" can search the same card it returns to the Deck), you can have access to any of the more specialised "Altergeists" whenever you need them, ranging from "Meluseek" to remove troublesome cards to "Kunquery" to control the Battle Phase. If an opponent is unable to remove the field presence of the monsters, then "Altergiest Hexstia" can come into play, taking full advantage of their floating effects to negate most Spell/Trap cards, while also acting as the Deck's main offensive presence. Official Decklists Weaknesses * "Altergeists" are a Trap-based Deck. This gives them a lot of their slow, control-oriented playing style but also gives them some pronounced weaknesses. * Obviously, playing second is a serious handicap for them. While not insurmountable with the help of hand traps, they can struggle against a pronounced board. * They struggle against monsters with targeting protection as their removal monsters do little good. * Trap removal can massively hurt this Deck. While "Protocol" stops their Traps being negated, they are nearly all Continuous Traps, meaning "Twin Twisters" and similar removal cards can simply destroy them. This is particularly painful for "Spoofing", as it is not an "Altergeist" card, making searching replacements slow, but the player will also lose the monster they shuffled into the Deck. ** On the other hand, destroying their backrow on-masse can be a far riskier proposition, as most players side "Waking the Dragon" to act as insurance against such tactics. * They often have very low ATK, meaning that monsters with fairly high ATK can simply run them down. Even "Hexstia" can prove vulnerable in battle if incautiously used/isolated. With the popularity of Traps like Mirror Force at an all-time low, the only thing between the "Altergeists" and a solid thumping is usually the monsters themselves and their removal effects. ** This also means they struggle to OTK decks/inflict serious damage in one turn. It is possible to weather the storm for a turn and probably still be in the game afterwards. * Finally, "Red Reboot" can set back the Deck an entire turn if used correctly. While the player loses a lot of LP and the "Altergeist" player gets a free search, the player can play through their turn without further interruption and crush the Deck with their superior firepower. Their negations are no good if the Summon they are trying to prevent have already happened. Category:TCG and OCG archetypes